3 ms·
I did some back-of-the-napkin math when I first applied to YC, and IIRC just based on their unicorn and almost-unicorn companies, and assuming any outcome below
by sebastiennight 2y ago
I did some back-of-the-napkin math when I first applied to YC, and IIRC just based on their unicorn and almost-unicorn companies, and assuming any outcome below $100M was equal to zero, joining YC still gave you an expected value of about $20MM.
So I think it's a way better deal than you're representing here.
- pclmulqdq 2y agoIt sounds like you are attributing all of the value of the company to joining YC. Many of those companies would have been worth plenty without YC. We have no idea how many. I would suggest to you that the top YC companies often are the ones who get the least from YC. This is also almost confirmed by the many YouTube videos that YC puts out where they say things along those lines. These companies do everything right while with YC, and they continue to do everything right well past YC (as I understand it, YC is not all that helpful past series C).
- dartos 2y agoI have no strong feelings towards or against YC, but your whole argument seems to hinge on > Many of those companies would have been worth plenty without YC. How would you know this? Are there many companies that got accepted by YC, turned them down, and got as big as the average YC company?
- pclmulqdq 2y agoI told you that there's no data, but the heads of YC have outright said this, so I believe them. Counterfactuals like this are famously hard to prove, and even the statistic you want does not prove it.